School Corporal Punishment

Ahmad, who is a ten year old child, is active and intelligent in school. He enjoyed every moment he spent during school hours. He loved going to school for learning new things and having a lot of friends around him. One morning, he was overslept and missing his bus to school. Consequently, he reached school late. When he was entering his classroom, his teacher asked him to submit his homework for the previous lesson. Surprisingly, Ahmad found that he did not do his homework at home. He apologized to the teacher for his fault because really forgot that he had homework to be done. Unfortunately, his teacher became angry to hear that and slapped him across the face. Because of the strong slap, Ahmad got bleeding and was sent to the hospital. After going through a medical check-up, the doctor said that Ahmad got internal injury and may lose his left hearing. As his parents learnt his bad condition, they lodged a police report to the nearest police station and the teacher had been arrested for further investigation. Even though his parents had made a report regarding the case, they realize that it would not give back their son’s hearing. The incident left the emotional and physical marks to his life. This situation is one of the effects of corporal punishment in school that is always debated by parents and teachers.

What is corporal punishment actually? Referring to Encyclopedia Britannica, corporal punishment is defined as “the physical disciplining of children in the schools and at home”. Corporal punishment could be separated in three which are parental (or domestic), school and judicial. According to Wapedia, school corporal punishment is an official punishment that involves spanking the school students in an intended school ceremony. The punishment is usually done by using a rattan cane, wooden paddle or leather strap, either across the buttock or on the palm of hand. However, the school corporal punishment should be carried out only with certain conditions determined by the ministry. Ikhtisas Circular Letter, number 7/2003 stated:
Regulation 6:
Headmaster of a school may from time to time, subject to any conditions and what he thinks fit, delegate authority school discipline and the power to judge other teachers in school or to students who set him for the purpose of, but unless the above is not one teacher or student may exercise that power except with the specific instructions.

Suzieana Uda Nagu (2004) reported that The Education Ordinance 1957 allowed corporal punishment to be done in school involving schoolboys only. However, this ordinance was revised since parents had expressed their disagreement about this issue. Yet, this issue is still being discussed by the ministry either to continue with it or not. There are some people who argued that corporal punishment should be continued in school as it is a quick fix to the disciplinary problem. They claimed that students can immediately catch up their lesson in class after being punished by teachers instead of being suspended from school. On the contrary, others feel that corporal punishment should not be implemented in school because it will lead to physical abuse to the students. While others may strongly disagree, I believe that corporal punishment should not be implemented in school because it is ineffective, detrimental and abusive.

First of all, corporal punishment should not be implemented in school because it is an ineffective corrective measure. Admittedly, corporal punishment will be a quick fix in schools in order to make the students stop from what they are doing. Students can easily going back to their classroom lesson after receiving physical punishment from teachers. From this situation, we can say that corporal punishment provides a save time formula instead of students having school suspension for several days that will absolutely affect the students’ lesson in school. However, does corporal punishment will ensure disciplinary and behavioral progression among students?

In the words of a Journal Adolescent Health (1992), there is no positive effect developed through punishing students physically. Students who had been penalized for their misbehavior never show that their obedience and moral characters are improving. Usually we can see this situation in school whenever students had been punished by their teacher some may feel afraid to repeat their mistake again. Conversely, they are some students who always doing the same mistake or even doing another offence that would make them being punished by teachers often. This kind of students is consistently being labeled as problematic students in school. They ignored any advice or warning from their teachers and did anything they love to. This circumstance shows that punishing students is not a guarantee to make the students’ attitude become better.

Caning, as one of corporal punishment method is always being practiced in Malaysian schools especially for secondary schools. Chiam (2004) mentioned that even though caning is a quick fix, it does not solve the underlying problem. Besides, Dr D. Sinniah (1993) claimed that there is no proof to suggest that corporal punishment can develop students’ learning ability. A method of hitting and spanking does not guarantee to produce a better person in terms of discipline, behavior, moral character as well as academic. It is just a reward for problematic students which will make them feeling scared to do mistakes in public. But, unconsciously these students will become more wild and rebellious to their own feeling because of punishment that they had faced through. At the end, corporal punishment will become a cause of leading to another new problem instead of solving the previous problem. From this fact, I believe that corporal punishment is not the only correct and effective method to be used in schools.

Another reason against corporal punishment in school is corporal punishment may be detrimental to students. As all we know, school corporal punishment involves spanking the students who had committed offence in front of other students and teachers in school. For one thing, teachers can be considered as second parents at school. Thus, it is the responsibility of teachers to educate and teach students in school as well as to correct students’ misbehavior during learning process. Unhappily, there are some teachers who had misused their power by hitting students excessively which may cause serious injury involving students’ physical. As a result, it becomes worst for students when teachers carry out the punishment emotionally as it will make them terribly suffering for pain.

Besides physical injuries, corporal punishment is also affects students emotion. For instance, when students had been punished by teachers in front of people, they will get angry and feel humiliated. Meanwhile, the students who watched the punishment became fear. Consequently, the students will feel disrespectful and lose their trust to the teachers and school. Professor Judith (Tee Shiao Eek, 2008) mentioned that negative discipline causes continuous violence in future. She said that as students are being punished when doing a mistake; it shows that violence is acceptable and okay for a stronger to hit a weaker. Accordingly, students learn that they can use violence whenever they think it is suitable to be applied. This circumstance shows that corporal punishment gives the bad impact for students physically and emotionally.

Likewise, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative to Malaysia Mr. Youssouf Oomar (2008) felt that corporal punishment should be stopped in school in order to prevent a cycle of violence from continuing. The World Report that was conducted through five years of serious conference recommends that physically punishing children in school will make children become depressed or aggressive as well as they may not become as usual as other children to instill moral values. He also added that corporal punishment lessens students’ capacity to react to reason. In addition, corporal punishment will produce anti-social, depressed and aggressive people who may lead to unreasonable cost of social and health problem in our future. From his statements, it could not be denied that corporal punishment will not only affect the students’ mental and physical body but it also demands for social illness in future. Thus, it is noted that corporal punishment will be detrimental to students’ physical, emotion and future life.

Of course, teachers should give lesson to their students for every mistake they had done in order to teach them to be a better person. If not, the students’ misbehavior will spread and become hard to restrain. The National Union of the Teaching Profession secretary-general, Lok Yim Pheng (2006) claimed that it is still relevant to practice corporal punishment in school for the hyper-stubborn students. He added that there are several students who are difficult to handle and always breaking school rules. He thought that only harsh punishment is suitable to control these kinds of students in school. He also stated that corporal punishment is intended to teach students, and it is accepted since it is not done publicly. Thus, there should not be worry of any negative effect of school corporal punishment since the punishment will be doing in a special room, only by the responsible teachers such as school principals or disciplinary teachers. Furthermore, the Ministry had supplied the guideline on the correct way in disciplining students in schools and all schools should adhere to the regulations.

Wee Ka Siong (Agence France-Presse, 2009) told that corporal punishment in school should be allowed as a precaution to control the students’ misbehavior in school. According to him, students nowadays are too inventive in breaking the school rules and corporal punishment is the best choice in controlling them. He also included that the corporal punishment will be held in a mannered way by notifying the parents of delinquent to witness the caning and meting out by the person who has been authorized to execute the punishment. The caning also will be done in a confined area. Therefore, the delinquent will not feel ashamed and humiliated because of the corporal punishment.

Yes, it such an ease for conducting corporal punishment since every schools have been provided by the guidelines. However, do you think that every school will go after the rules that had been determined by the ministry? How will it become if the teachers and schools are just ignoring the rules and guidelines? Thus, the last reason for opposing corporal punishment in school is it may become abusive to the students if the schools and teachers are not following the guidelines. The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (2004) reported that about seven per cent of the girls from 5754 students who took part in a survey admitted being caned by their teachers in schools. This incident should not be happened in school since it has been stated in the law that caning is permissible only for schoolboys. It indicates that the schools as well as the teachers are not really stick to the disciplinary guideline that has been provided to them.

There is a time when teachers cannot control their emotion while carrying out the punishment and this will lead to the physical abuse to the students. As a result, the students will become the victim of teachers’ anger. And finally, the corporal punishment may happen to be a teachers’ platform in abusing and releasing anger to students, unlike to educate the students in the first place. It seems that corporal punishment is unfair for the students. The teachers who suppose to be their educator and responsible individual to mould the students’ attitude will be the one who practice violence in school. Youssouf Oomar (2008) pointed out that the students who experienced violence have slight positive value as they become to vacate from academic quest and lose their interest towards success. It is a waste for students who become lack of motivation in striving for their future due to their experienced of being abused by teachers in school.

Frederick C. Green (1988) and UNICEF (2008) believed that corporal punishment in school may become a form of child abuse and violence to students. They agreed that the core of school corporal punishment involves the cause of pain and ends with the students feeling humiliated. The negative effects of corporal punishment have never been shown to improve the students’ attitude but to worsen their condition and can be labeled as child abuse towards children. Based on the Society for Adolescent Medicine (1992), students would have lower self-esteem, overstated guilt feelings, and experienced the symptoms of anxiety as a result of being abused or become the witnesses of abuse. In addition, the students who are being abused will become injured and avoiding them to go to school for days, weeks or even months. For that reason, corporal punishment is abusive and may become a waste of time for students.

It is stated in Glorious Qur’an about the reminder to act with wisdom and fair with people. Referring to The Meaning of the Glorious Qur’an (2001) in Surah al-Nahl, verse 125, “Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the better way.” This verse encourages us to educate and call people to the right path with wisdom, fair and better way. In my opinion in term of educating students in school, it is essential for us to give lesson to them in a positive way so that it will be easy for them to reason and follow the good things. It is quite a shame for teachers who always promote their students to become a better person, not to use violence in school and give respect to other people if the teachers are the one who demonstrate violence by practicing the corporal punishment in school.

On the other hand, I think the positive award is a better way in educating students in school. There are many methods can be used to demonstrate the positive reinforcement to students such as giving them a responsibility for every mistake they have done. For instance, if the students are being caught for vandalizing the school’s property they may be punished by giving them responsibility to repair the property in a determined time. Another example is asking the students who littering in school compound to clean the whole school compound as a penalty for their mistake. When students are being taught about the responsibility of their own action, they will learn that it is a must for everyone to receive any affect of their own mistake. Consequently, they will learn the positive values while completing the responsibilities that have been assigned to them.

The examples above describe how important for students to learn positive values in order to instill the positive manners in themselves. It is a must for the adults or teachers to practice and show the positive attitudes so that the students can be easily follow, since students learn more on what they observe every day. It is illustrated such as teaching a teenager to drive a car. The instructor will just sitting by the teenager’s side and watching as well as giving instruction on the correct way to drive the car. When the teenager drives the car carelessly, both of them will get involved in a road accident. So, the instructor has to teach the teenager slowly and demonstrate the easy and right way so that the teenager can easily follow.

As a conclusion, I believe that corporal punishment should not be implemented in school because of ineffective, detrimental and abusive. It is important for teacher to note that students learn more from their mistakes. Promoting a positive situation in the class lesson is one of the alternatives for corporal punishment. Teachers have to be patient in educating their students so that the students can learn in the correct and better way.